The real question is why did they install a system based on 5.25" floppy disks in 1998 in the first place!?

The 5.25" floppy was surpassed by the 3.5" floppy by 1988 - ten years prior to this systems installation - and by 1998 most new software was being distributed on CD-ROM. So by my reckoning, in 1998 they installed a ‘new’ system based on hardware that was 1.5 generations out-of-date and haven’t updated it in the 26 years since.